Category: Sermon

Introduction

Last week, we talked about what it means to honor God in response to His love for us. This morning, we’re going to talk about the idea of faithfulness, and we’re going to ask the question, “Where is our faithfulness?”

Now, you might be asking, “Where in the world did that Revelation passage come from?” I read that passage first because I don’t want us to make any mistake about who this word in Malachi 2 is addressed to. When we read passages like this we might be tempted to say, “That’s not for us today, that was for that group of people there in that distant place in time and history.” But, make no mistake that God’s word always has practical application for us.

It’s true that this was first addressed to priests who worked in the temple under the old administration of the covenant, but here and now, under this new covenant this word applies to us who are called to be priests unto God.

So, with that I want us to first examination, The Job Description or Occupation of Priests, and then I want us to see how the priests broke covenant with God, and broke covenant with one another.

The Occupation of Priests

In the Old Testament you had the High Priest, and then you have the priests who served under the high priest. The High Priest was the one who went into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled blood on the altar. Christ fulfills the office of High Priest for us, but we are like these priests that served under the High Priest. Priests had two main functions: they were to serve God, and they were to serve others by being the go-between point for God and man. They’re function was to draw near to God, and to bear God’s people before God.

So, what does this mean for us?

Over and over again, the Bible says that we are a “holy priesthood” and “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5-9). Revelation 5:9-10 says that Christ has purchased us and made us to be “a kingdom and priests serving our God, and [we] will reign on earth.”

Our ultimate function as the holy priesthood of God is to serve God, and serve others by doing what the priests of the Old Testament did and present others to God, and we do that with our witness, with our testimony, with the gifts that God has given us for the edification of the body of Christ.

We are the priests who point to our High Priest, Jesus Christ, as He bore the weight our sins on Himself. And so, that’s our job. We are priests unto God, telling of His goodness to others, and Malachi 2 deals with not only the failures of those priests, but our failures to be the priests that God has called us to be.

As I stated last week, this is hard. This is weighty, but we shouldn’t hear the voice of condemnation because that’s not what God intends for us. Verse 4 even tells us, “I have sent this command to you that my covenant may hold.” Instead, we should hear the voice of conviction calling us to a higher and better standard of living.

Priests Who Break Covenant with God (v. 1-9)

God Deals with Priestly Failure

“And now, O priests, this command is for you. 2If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse on you… – Malachi 2:1-2a, NRSV

So many times we come to church and we hear the Word of God preached, and we hear the Word of God taught in Sunday School, and it goes in one hear and out the other. We listen, but we don’t lay it to heart, and God is telling us that listening isn’t enough, the Word must applied to our hearts if it’s going to do us any good.

And then God goes on to tell us the details of the curse. This is how God deals with priestly failure. Keep in mind, we read in chapter 1 that God would rather close the doors on the temple, then to have them come in and kindle fire on His altar in vain. So, this how God starts the process of closing the doors on the temple.

“and I will curse your blessings; indeed I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.” – Malachi 2:2b, NRSV

What do you think it means that God actually curses their blessings?

Numbers 6:24-27 is traditional priestly benediction:

“The Lord bless you and keep you;25the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;26the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.27So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” – Numbers 6:24-27, NRSV

If God curses the blessing of the priests when they give that benediction then it does the exact opposite, and they might as well be saying this:

May the Lord curse you, and abandon you!May the Lord keep you in darkness, and hide His face from you!May the Lord give you only judgement and torment instead of grace and peace!

And that’s what the priests brought on themselves by not taking God’s word, and laying it to heart. We would save ourselves a lot of trouble in life if we take God’s word and lay it to heart.

So, God deals with priestly failure by taking their blessings and turning them to curses, but He also takes their pride and turns it to shame.

“I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and I will put you out of my presence.” – Malachi 2:3, NRSV

God isn’t just saying this as a some kind of shock factor. By threatening them in this way, if God were to actually spread the dung of their offerings on their faces, this would disqualify them from priestly service in the temple. They’ve already disqualified themselves in ways that are less visible, but this would make it plain to the world that these men who made vows before God are shameful covenant breakers.

This is why we must grieve over our sin. If you grieve over your sin, then you’re in a good place because that’s the place where God can show grace, mercy, and forgiveness, but if you’re like these priests who act as if they have no sin, then you make God a liar and the truth is not in you. That’s 1 John 1:8 – “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

By threatening to expose and disqualify the priests, God is saying on no uncertain terms that He would rather have no priests than unfaithful priests.

God doesn’t need us. You’ve heard me say before that God isn’t like Greek gods of the pantheon that required worshippers to stay in existence. All men can be liars and deceivers and yet God will still be true. His word will still be the standard of truth and morality, even if every individual decides to follow the course of this world all the way to hell in a handbasket.

God turns their blessings into curses, and He turns their pride into shame, and He does the same thing with us. No one ever really prospers without God. We catch people like King David and the prophet Jeremiah saying all through the Scriptures, “Why do the wicked prosper?”

“For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness.” – Psalm 73:3, NLT

“LORD, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. So let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy?” – Jeremiah 12:1, NLT

The truth is that the wicked only look like they’re prospering. They might have houses, and cars, and land, but they’ve always got to have one more car, one more house, just one more piece of land. It’s never enough. And one day, God will call them to account.

If you look verses 4 through 7, we’ll see God’s standard for priestly success.

God’s Standard for Priestly Success

“Know, then, that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may hold, says the Lord of hosts. 5My covenant with him was a covenant of life and well-being, which I gave him; this called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in integrity and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. 7For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.” – Malachi 2:4-7, NRSV

I think verses 4 and 5 are profound.

In verse 4, God explicitly states that the whole reason for this command is that His covenant would hold, and then God goes on in verse 5 to tell us what the covenant means. He says, “My covenant with him was a covenant of life and well-being.”

This is God’s intent every time He chastens us. The end of Hebrews 12:10 tells us God disciplines us for a time “that we may share His holiness.”

“Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” – Hebrews 12:11, NRSV

Every time you read the word and it convicts you, every time you hear the Word taught or preached and it convicts you, it’s for the intention that you would see fruits of righteousness in your life. And This is what God is doing here in Malachi 2. He’s not being mean and spiteful. He’s disciplining the priests so that they meet the standard that God sets for them. He’s wanting them to fit this picture of priestly success in Malachi 2:5-6:

He revered me and stood in awe of my name.

True instruction was in his mouth, no wrong on His lips.

He walked with me in integrity

He turned many from iniquity.

If you’re keeping your Bible open and following along, I want you to notice that these things that God is saying that makes up a good priest, these things follow a pattern.

He revered me, stood in awe of My name (relationship to God)

True instruction, no wrong on his lips (relationship to others)

He walked with me in integrity (relationship to God)

He turned many from iniquity (relationship to others)

What does tell us the two greatest commandments are: Love God, love others, in that order. That’s where moral failure begins to be formed. Moral failure is always birthed in the place where we fail to love and honor God the way we should. So, when the Hebrew priests start breaking the marriage covenant with their Hebrew wives so that can marry idol-worshipping Palestinian wives, it’s not because one day the priest woke up and said, “Today, I’m going to leave my wife and go find a nice looking pagan girl,” it’s because they began being unfaithful to God, and when you’re relationship with God is terrible your relationship with others will follow.

When you start loving God for what He can give you, you’ll start loving others for what they can give you.

If your relationship with God is centered around you (your wants, your needs, “me, me, me”), then your relationships with others will be the same way. That’s not the way a priest unto God is supposed to act.

And this is how the priests break covenant with each other. Notice verse 10.

Priests Who Break Covenant with One Another (v. 10-17)

“Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?”– Malachi 2:10, NRSV

Notice that Malachi is trying to reason with them. He’s says, “Listen, we’re all sons of God here. We’re in the family, and if we’re in the family, then why are we faithless to each other? Why do we not keep our covenants with one another?”

“And this you do as well: You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor at your hand. 14You ask, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.”– Malachi 2:13-14, NRSV

Remember last week, we said that there were severe consequences to half-hearted repentance. And this is what Malachi 1 was saying. Jesus even tells us in Matthew 5 that if we have ought with our brother we give our gifts at the altar. We have to leave our gift there, patch things up, and then give our gift.

It’s not that you don’t have the ability to repent until you make your relationships right, it’s that you have to demonstrate that your repentance is genuine. If you’re repentance is genuine, you’ll want to be faithful in your relationships to others because God has been faithful to you.

This is what Malachi is saying in verse 13. We’re good at being religious and playing the part, and we wonder, “Why isn’t God blessing us? Doesn’t He see us sit in the pew on Sunday morning, doesn’t he see how many chapters I write down on the little piece of paper that gets passed around in Sunday School? Doesn’t God see how much I put in the offering plate?”

Sure, God sees all of those things, but He also sees the grudges we’ve held, he sees the covenants we’ve broken, he hears the lies we’ve told, he hears the rumors we’ve passed around. So, we might ask like the priests, “Why does he not accept our offering?” It’s because he was a witness to all the covenants we‘ve made, and not fulfilled.

“Did not one God make her? Both flesh and spirit are his. And what does the one God desire? Godly offspring. So look to yourselves, and do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his youth. 16For I hate divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel, and covering one’s garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.”– Malachi 2:15-16, NRSVThis is the passage where a lot of preachers will get off on a tangent about divorce, but the problem is that while yes, God hates divorce, you have to keep two things in mind:

God hates divorce, but He does not hate those who divorce. There are sometimes legitimate reasons for a divorce. Jesus says in Matthew 5:31-32 that sexual immorality is a legitimate reason for divorce.

The other thing we have to realize is that this passage isn’t primarily about divorce. It’s about breaking covenants with God, and with others. Ecclesiastes 5:5 says that it is better that it is better to not make a vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it, but when other people are involved with the vow, like in the case of a marriage, and you break that marriage vow, you have broken covenant with God as well as your spouse.

Your sin doesn’t just affect you, it affects others. Divorce in biblical times was a lot different than it is now. Women now have opportunities available to them that they didn’t have in biblical times. They didn’t have the opportunity to work like men did. When woman was married she was taken out of her home, and her husband to provide everything for her, but if her husband divorced her, and it put her out of his home, it was a sentence of death. She had nowhere to go.

She had to go into prostitution or die, those were her options. So, divorce means, “I want you dead.” And so, what would lead a priest to do this?

“The practice of deserting and divorcing Hebrew women for the purpose of marrying non-Hebrew women was probably motivated by economics, since intermarriage was a requisite for entering the well-established mercantile guilds of postexilic Palestine already in place when the Hebrews returned from exile.” – NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

The motivation was money, power, and not even that much money and power. It was just enough so that they could do business. They compromised. And in Revelation, that’s what the mark of the beast is about. If you don’t have this mark, you can’t buy sell, or trade.

And you might say “Well, we don’t live in those times, yet.” I would argue that we do. It may not be a literal mark that we’re dealing, but does the phrase, “Bake the cake” sound familiar? It’s the same thing.

Unless you compromise your covenant with God, you can’t do business in the economy of the world. We have these temptations all around us. We don’t’ have to be business owners to see the kinds of things that await us when we get out of bed every morning.

Verse 17. We’re about to wrap it up.

“You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”– Malachi 2:17, NRSV

This is the last accusation in this chapter. Many commentators and preachers connect this to chapter 3, and I suppose you could, but I feel like this is a big picture summary of the whole book of Malachi.

This is not just a big picture summary of Malachi, but it’s root of all of our problems. When we try to bless what God has cursed, and curse what God has blessed, then we take the order that God has established and turn it to chaos.

Conclusion

We weary God when justify our sin. The way we justify our sin is by putting it on the back burner and saying that it’s no big deal. We minimize it. When we see that we have sin in our lives we know we have to deal with it so that it puts the balance of our lives back in order, and we can deal with it two ways: we can justify our sin or God can justify us.

If we justify ourselves, then we end up just minimizing our sin. We never actually get rid of it. We can never actually separate ourselves from our sin, we only try to control it, and contain it.

But if God justifies us, he can actually take our sin and separate it from us. And when He does that, He lays it on Christ, and in exchange for your sin you get righteousness.

So, ultimately, when we justify ourselves, not only do we weary God, but we weary ourselves. We wear ourselves out trying to control and contain something that we can’t actually get rid of. When you have a disease would you rather just get rid of the disease or would rather treat the symptoms until the disease finally kills you?

If God justifies you, then your sin is somewhere else, and you have Christ’s righteousness in its place. Today, faith and repentance are yours. The righteousness of Christ is yours. The bread and the fruit of the vine that we took earlier are yours. So, I’m going pray for us the same prayer that I prayed over us last week, and if you need prayer for anything, these altars open and our elders are here to pray with you.

Closing Prayer

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Introduction

Our passage isn’t easy to digest. It’s hard, it’s convicting, but it’s also necessary. It’s like in Revelation 10 when John takes the scroll from the angel and eats it, it’s sweet to his lips, but it’s bitter to his stomach. This first chapter in Malachi might be bitter when it’s applied because it’ll touch our sin on a personal level, but when it’s all said and done, it is sweet because it draws us closer to God.

We start out the passage by seeing that this is an oracle, but if you’re reading from the King James, then you’ll see that instead of the word ‘oracle,’ the word ‘burden’ is used, and I think this is significant because the interaction that follows between God and His people is weighty.

The entire book of Malachi follows a distinct pattern: there’s a declaration made by God, then there’s a question posed by the people – “How have we done x,” then God makes a defense and an explanation of his accusation against them. Almost the entire book follows this pattern.

As we look at the text this morning, I want to us to see two main ideas. We needs to first of all, God’s Abundance of Love, and Our Lack of Honor.

God’s Abundance of Love

In the first five verses there are three ideas in this section that I want us to see: first, God’s Love Declared, then we see that God’s Love is Doubted, and then we’ll look how God’s Love is Displayed.

God’s Love Declared

“I have loved you, says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” Is not Esau Jacob’s brother? says the Lord. Yet I have loved Jacob.” – Malachi 1:2, NRSV

What does this mean? The people whom Malachi is addressing is are descendants of Jacob. Jacob and Esau were brothers, and even though Esau was the older brother, God chose to set his love on Jacob. So, this is what God is saying:

My love for you is electing love because I chose you for myself above your brother Esau.

My love for you is unconditional love because I chose you before you had done anything good or evil—before you had met any conditions—while you were still in your mother’s womb.

“Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” – Genesis 25:21-23, NIV

“Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, 12not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.” 13As it is written, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.” – Romans 9:11-13, NRSV

My love for you is sovereign love because I was under no constraint to love you; I was not forced or coerced; I was totally in charge when I set my love upon you.

And my love for you is free because it’s the overflow of my infinite grace that can never be bought. [1]

All of these qualities of God’s love have bestowed to us freely in Christ.

And yet, in spite of all of this, in spite of the fact that God has divine purpose and plan for His people, His love is still doubted.

God’s Love is Doubted

They still say in the middle of verse 2, “How have you loved us?”

Think about all the ways in which we have doubted God’s love. He has blessed us. Listen, there are things in your life that you just don’t get a say in. You don’t get a say in what language you learn as a child. You don’t get a say in what country you’re born in, you don’t get a choice in what culture you get raised in.

And God has arranged all of these things in your life that you live in a relatively prosperous culture, you were raised learning to speak one of the most difficult languages to learn. You live in a nation with a relatively decent amount of personal freedoms compared to other nations.

You might say, “Well, our freedoms are slowly being taken away.” Who cares! Be thankful for what God has given you now, in the present. God didn’t promise you a bill of rights. He promised you blessing if you do what is right, and a curse if you don’t do what is right.

Rights or not, we can confidently say with the psalmist, “With the Lord on my side I do not fear. What can mortals do to me? The Lord is on my side to help me; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.” (Psalm 118:6-7, NRSV)

Some of you have had really hard lives growing up, but it could have been worse, and the reason it wasn’t worse is because God personally loves you, and cares for you. I would even say that God actually likes you. He doesn’t just put up with you because of a contract that He has with Jesus. God has placed His love on you and one day you will be joyously brought before Him.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing,” – Jude 24, NRSV

He rejoices to save us, to sanctify, and He will, with rejoicing, escort us into His presence.

Yet, in spite of all of this we still doubt sometimes.

And it’s the same voice that told Eve, “you will not die” that tells us, “God doesn’t love you, God didn’t really save you.” “It doesn’t matter how much you ask for forgiveness, you will die in your sin.” It’s that condemning voice that causes us to doubt.

So, God goes on to explain in more explicit terms exactly what He means.

God’s Love is Displayed

“but I have hated Esau; I have made his hill country a desolation and his heritage a desert for jackals. 4If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says: They may build, but I will tear down, until they are called the wicked country, the people with whom the Lord is angry forever. 5Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the borders of Israel!” – Malachi 1:3-5, NRSV

We see passages like this, and first inclination is to say, “That’s not fair.”

Why does God place this kind of love and care on Jacob and his lineage and not on Esau and his people? Paul gives a commentary on this passage when he writes Romans 9.

“It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel, 7and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but “It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.” 8This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. 9For this is what the promise said, “About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.” 10Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac. 11Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, 12not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.” 13As it is written,“I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”14What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”16So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.”

– Romans 9:6-16, NRSV

When we look at Malachi 1 and Romans 9, and we say, “It’s not fair. God should show this kind of mercy to everyone,” what we’re saying is that God owes it to them. No one is owed mercy.

Remember 2 Corinthians 4:1-6. I won’t read, I’ll let you look it up on your own. But when we say, “It’s not fair.” We’re saying that someone who chooses to be blinded by the god of this world deserves sight, and that’s not the case. When God gives sight to blind, when God gives life to the dead, when God grants us repentance and faith, it’s not because He owes it to us, it’s because His grace is more powerful than our sin.

His kindness to us is more more powerful than our desire to rebel against Him.

God displays His kindness in His electing love that He has placed on us by the atoning blood of His son. And so, we see God’s abundance of love, but what about our lack of honor?

Our Lack of Honor

If we continue on in Malachi 1, we’ll see that there’s three ways that God is not shown the honor that’s due him:

God’s Name is Despised

“A son honors his father, and servants their master. If then I am a father, where is the honor due me? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. You say, “How have we despised your name?” – Malachi 1:6, NRSV

What’s the accusation here? God is actually accusing them of breaking the 3rd commandment.

“You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.” – Exodus 20:7, NRSV

If you think this is simply an issue of saying God’s name when you curse, you’re not going deep enough. God’s name is His identity. So, taking His name in vain isn’t necessarily about taking the verbal usage of His name lightly (although we shouldn’t do that either), it’s about taking His character and His identity lightly.

See, now the 3rd commandment isn’t so manageable when we see it like that, and that’s good because it’s opportunity to see God’s grace and forgiveness at work in our lives.

We have a problem of not seeing the big picture when it comes to the Bible. We’ll get into Malachi 3 later, but if you think Malachi 3 is simply about giving your 10% to the church, you’re mistaken. The big picture of Malachi 3 is giving to what God what’s due, and what’s due to God is honor, not in the form of lip service, but in the form of tithes that go into the storehouse to feed the hungry, and clothe the naked.

God’s law always has a big picture application to our lives, but we want to break it down into manageable pieces so that we can have checklist, mark off the things we’re supposed to do, and make sure we don’t do the things we’re not supposed to do, but the problem is that if you can manage God’s law, all of it, then you don’t need Jesus.

This is what Paul says in Galatians, if righteousness could come through the law, then it would, but it doesn’t, so it can’t. Righteousness comes by grace through faith in Christ apart from works of the law. (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16)

So, what does it mean that they have despised God’s name, and what does it mean when we despise God’s name? Now, that the 3rd commandment isn’t as manageable as we thought it was, what are the ways that we despise God’s name? How do we doubt His character and His identity?

If we keep going in Malachi 1, one of the ways that God’s people despised His name was through their offerings. So, they ask, “How have we despised your name?” And this is the answer God gives.

God’s Altar is Polluted

“By offering polluted food on my altar. And you say, “How have we polluted it?” By thinking that the Lord’s table may be despised. 8When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not wrong? Try presenting that to your governor; will he be pleased with you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.” – Malachi 1:7-8, NRSV

God’s people had the audacity to come into God’s house and bring their lame, their broken, and blemished animals to God.

You can’t give your leftovers to God, and think He’s going to let you live in His favor. We don’t do animal sacrifices anymore. So, what does this mean for us as the New Testament church? It means that we’re the offering.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” – Romans 12:1, NIV

This is about your attitude in worship. This is about your attitude in service to God. Do you give yourself wholeheartedly to God, and to the service of His people or do you give the bare minimum of yourself?

We can’t separate our attitude toward God from how we offer ourselves to Him.

“Contempt for the Lord’s Table is contempt for the Lord of the table.” [2]– Peter J. Leithart, Blessed Are the Hungry

So, what this means is that everytime we refuse God the wholehearted worship that He deserves we actually show contempt for Him. That’s not an easy thing to come to terms with, that there’s actually a part of you that wants to rebel against God, but it’s the flesh, it’s the sin nature. It’s why the writer of the hymn says, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it to thy courts above.”

This is where we need to pray, “Seal my heart, Lord.” Because if God seals our hearts with the seal of the Holy Spirit, then we’re never going to wander so far that He can’t bring us back.

We’ve seen how God’s name is despised, and God’s altar is polluted, but here’s where we finally see that our godless, ritualistic service is denounced.

Godless Service is Denounced

“And now implore the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. The fault is yours. Will he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts. 10Oh, that someone among you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hands. 11For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. 12But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and the food for it may be despised. 13“What a weariness this is,” you say, and you sniff at me, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. 14Cursed be the cheat who has a male in the flock and vows to give it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished; for I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is reverenced among the nations.” – Malachi 1:9-14, NRSV

I just read that from the NRSV, but I’m not sure if you can really see the meaning of verse 9. So, I’ll read verse 9 again this time from the New King James.

“But now entreat God’s favor, that He may be gracious to us. While this is being done by your hands, will He accept you favorably? Says the Lord of hosts.”– Malachi 1:9, NKJV

There are severe consequences for believing that you can flippantly ignore God’s call to repentance.

Malachi wants us to call on God because he encourages us, “entreat God’s favor because He will be gracious,” but the prophet also wants us to understand what that means because he says, “While this is being done, will He accept you favorably?” Saying, “God, I’m sorry” while your fingers are crossed behind your back doesn’t work. The New Living Translation says, “when you bring that kind of offering, why should he show you any favor at all?” (Malachi 1:9, NLT)

God actually goes on to say, in verse 10, that He wishes that someone would shut the door of the temple so that they would not kindle fire on His altar in vain.

God would rather us close doors at Mount Carmel than to have us come in here and think that we can slide by on half hearted worship.

The close of this chapter ends with God reminding us of who He is. Notice the end of verse 14, “…I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is reverenced among the nations.” God made a promise that He would always have a remnant. He would always have a people that worshipped Him in Spirit and truth. Even in the midst of a great falling away, there would still be a people who loved God, and worshipped Him with their whole heart. The question is: will it be us or will be those give God what’s left?

Conclusion

If you go back to verse one, you’ll notice that Malachi doesn’t get the traditional introduction to prophetic office, “The word of the Lord came to Malachi…” Instead, we get simply, “An oracle.” But the King James calls this a burden. It’s a heavy word that’s been given to Malachi, and like all heavy things, to carry it you have to get completely under it. But, unlike a couch or a heavy box, there’s no way you can lift with your legs to avoid hurting your back. There’s no easy way to take a word from the Lord that says, “You have despised my name, you’ve polluted my altar, and you have shown me no honor.”

It’s going to be heavy on your heart, it’s going to pour over your soul like any a burden should, but there’s good news. Jesus has taken your faithlessness, your rebellion, and your lack of honor, and He has nailed those things to His cross, and they did rise from the tomb with Him. And He did it, not because you’re good or because you’re worth it, but because He desires for you to become His righteousness.

“For our sake [God] made him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV, brackets added

I know that every week I say that these altars are open, but I really mean that. These altars aren’t just a place where we come and pray gently for our prayer needs for 3-5 minutes every Sunday, this is a real place where you can approach a real God with your real sin, and in exchange for your sin, He will give you His righteousness.

In the Book of Common Prayer, there is a prayer for confession of sin, and I want to pray that prayer over us today, and as we sing, know that the gifts of faith and repentance are yours in Christ.

Closing Prayer

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen. [3]

At my home church, I preach on the third Sunday night of every month, and every other Wednesday. And since my pastor isn’t really the sermon series kinda guy (which is perfectly fine for his style of preaching), I’ve decided that I’m going to use my preaching dates as opportunity to try my first shot at preaching an advent series.

In case you couldn’t already tell my inspiration for the title “So, This is Christmas” comes from the opening lines of John Lennon’s 1971 Christmas hit, “Happy Xmas (War is Over).”

When this song came out it was an anthem for peace in the UK and eventually the song got more popular over the years, and The Fray has even recorded a cover of it (which is fantastic by the way, check it out here).

What I really want to do in this series is give us a reminder that Jesus really is the reason for the season. In reality, that should be the goal of every advent series. As a matter of fact, the goal of your preaching (regardless of where you are in the Church calendar) should be to exalt Christ and present the Gospel. I think so often we’re trying to come up with original ideas for our preaching. “Maybe I can present this new idea or that new idea.” “Maybe, I can try a different approach.” While creativity in a sermon series isn’t a bad thing, it can become a bad thing when we make the focus all about how ‘original’ we are instead of how good God is. In reality there’s nothing new under the sun, and if we think it’s new then it’s probably just an old heresy revisited.

But, in case you’re interested, here’s the basic outline that I’m thinking of working with:

Sermon 1: The ‘Who’ of Christmas
Text: John 1:1-5

Sometimes we just need to return to the basics. In the hustle and bustle of the busy Christmas we try to find the right gifts for our friends and family we must remember that God has given us the ultimate gift of His son, Jesus Christ.

Sermon 2: The ‘What’ of ChristmasText: Hebrews 2:10-18

In this message we’ll look specifically at what Jesus came to do. In this message, we’ll cover the Incarnation, a brief overview of the life of Christ, and his death and resurrection.

Sermon 3: The ‘Why’ of ChristmasText: 1 John 3:8

Carl F.H. Henry said, “The early church didn’t say, ‘Look what the world has become!’ They said, ‘Look what has come into the world!” 1 John 3:8 clearly says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. That’s the ‘why’ of Christmas. So, what does that look like for us? What are the works of the devil and what does it look like for them to be destroyed in our lives and in the world?

I realize that these are not the traditional texts that one may use for their Christmas readings, but I believe that this is the guideline that I’m supposed to use in this advent season. If you like it, feel free to use it.

“And to the angel at the church in Sardis write: These are the words of Him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a theif, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. Yet you have still a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; they will walk with me, dressed in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before His angels. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” – Revelation 3:1-6, NRSV

Flannery O’Connor once said that while the south is hardly Christ-centered, it is most assuredly Christ-haunted. I thought that that was such a profound statement especially considering what part of the south I’m from. I live close to Russellville, Arkansas where there are roughly 120 churches. There is practically a church on every corner, and yet our town doesn’t seem very Christ-centered.

Of course, it’s easy for us to look outside the four walls of our church and see how morally bankrupt the rest of the world is, but what would we see if we looked in our own hearts? Will we find that are hearts are Christ-centered or Christ-haunted? Are we actively living our faith or are we simply ghosts, remnants of what used to be?

For the last couple of months, I’ve been doing a slow read through the book of Revelation and every once in a while it seems like the Holy Spirit will poke me on the shoulder and say, “Pay attention, I’m talking to you” and when He does I soak in the passage and I am drawn closer to Christ through an outcry for repentance. And that sounds all warm and fuzzy, but it’s not. It’s painful. I think sometimes I make it more painful than it has to be. I don’t know about you, but I find myself in a rush trying to be holy NOW, and then I end up messing up again. I want to hurry to do enough ‘holy’ things to make up for the sinful things I’ve done, but the reality of the situation is that my sin was already paid for by the blood of Jesus. So, what must I do? Listen.

Notice the last words of Jesus in this passage, “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.” So, what will I hear if I listen? His voice telling me to “remember what I’ve received and heard and to obey it.” So, did I receive and hear? The Gospel. The good news that Jesus came to save sinners like me. How do I obey it? By repentance and belief. I must repent of my sins and believe that God raised Jesus from the dead to declare victory over all sin.

If I listen closely to what the Spirit saying, I can also hear Him telling me to wake up. One of my favorite passages is found in the book of Ephesians, and it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Paul quotes from an old hymn of the first century Church that alludes to Isaiah 26:19 which is a promise of God to His people that their dead shall awake from their slumber, and one stanza of that particular verse says, “O dwellers of the dust, awake and sing for joy!” The Holy Spirit is telling us that the time for taking a spiritual dirt nap is over! We must come alive, see the glory of God, repent and be saved, be sanctified, and be filled with the Holy Spirit!

My pastor posted this video on Facebook and I thought I would share it with you guys. My pastor’s friend, Dave Sarver of Brother’s Keeper Church, speaks about what the Bible really has to say about judging one another. I hope and pray you get as much out of it as I did.

It’s been a bit since I written, but I intend to write some more soon when I have more time. A couple of days ago I was browsing through the website of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and I found this sermon by one of my favorite pastors to listen to, so I thought I would share it here for you to enjoy as well.